Lemaire To The Devils, And Other Things We Already Knew

by Carlos Figueiredo
So Jacques Lemaire is the new head coach of the New Jersey Devils. Interestingly enough, Mario Trembley is coming along for the ride as an assistant coach. This news was just about as shocking and unexpected as…

Yeah. Some things you just know before they are made “official”. The blog I posted on Friday, with the RDS.ca story, had this dead on. Hell, Lemaire has pretty much been the onlycandidate for the last 3 weeks. Of course, Lou will tell everyone that there were reasons why the announcement wasn’t made earlier. We will never know what those “reasons” were. I’m guessing it had something to do with Trembley coming along for the ride and what the Devils would do with Johnny Mac.

Whatever the reasons are, the thing we do know now is that Lemaire will once again be the head coach of the Devils. He will be joined behind the bench by Mario Trembley who was Lemaire’s assistant in Minnesota. Tommy Albelin will enter his second season as an assistant, and Jacques Caron, who has been with the team for 16 years, round out Lemaire’s staff as goaltender coach.

John MacLean meanwhile will now be the head coach of the Lowell Devils. He will have familiar names with him in Lowell, as Kevin Dean returns for a fourth year as an assistant, and Chris Terreri will be the goaltending coach (and will probably take over that position in NJ once Caron leaves, whenever that may be).

Scott Stevens will also be taking a more active role in both New Jersey and Lowell according to Lou.

Of course, all the “Devils trap; boring hockey” posts have already popped up all over hockey related sites. Which brings us to another thing we already knew: If the fans of other teams could watch their team play the trap as effectively as the Devils did, and have them win three cups in eight years, as us Devils fans did, they would gladly accept it!

I don’t think, however, that Lemaire will in any way change the offensive look of the Devils. He’s been around for a long time. He knows the game is different now. Do I think he was the best choice as the new head coach? Not really. Do I hate the move? Not really. As Scott Burnside writes in this article, what you may think of Lemaire may not be completely true. (thank you to @rebecca_glass on twitter for sending me the link)

Brian Rolston will surely be happy to have his old coach back. In this great interview of Zach Parise at the NHL Awards by my friend Michelle Kenneth over at InsideHockey.com, Parise was quoted as saying he’s heard Rolston say Lemaire “Is the best coach he’s ever had.” That’s good to hear from a player that the Devils will surely need to step up his play (a return to his 30+ goal years in Minnesota would be nice) if they want to push their streak of reaching the playoffs to 13 years in a row.

If you’re wondering what they are thinking in Wild country, here is one Minnesota Wild’s fans thoughts on Lemaire’s hiring, and on Martin Skoula: Pucks Gone Wild.

Another note: You may have heard this earlier, but there is no truth to the rumor that the Devils, in keeping with their current trend of waiting to do everything, will release their pre-season schedule three weeks into the regular season. It is SUPPOSED to be released today, with the NHL regular season schedule being released on Wednesday. Now you know.

Which brings me to the final thing we already knew. I found this picture on the Official Devils Website. It caught my eye because, well, I’m in it. It’s from the Devils Draft Party. However, the most interesting part of the picture is that, with the amazing technology we have now, they were able to capture the thought bubble over one poor, misplaced individuals head. It’s just another thing we already knew.
(NOTE: Click on the pic to get a bigger, clearer look)

Tags: Brian Rolston, Jacques Lemaire, John MacLean, New Jersey Devils, NHL, Scott Stevens, Zach Parise